Interfax: Moscow commission rules not to reinstall monument to Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanskaya Square
MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) – The Moscow City Duma’s monumental art commission unanimously decided on Tuesday not to return a monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, a prominent Soviet statesman and founder of the Soviet security services, to Lubyanskaya Square in central Moscow.
“Taking into account the current circumstances in society, I propose refraining from returning the monument. This is more of a political issue,” Lev Lavrenov, the commission’s chairman, said at the Tuesday session.
The commission has considered the return of the monument to Dzerzhinsky to Lubyanskaya Square for the sixth time since 2000.
“We are firmly convinced that it is inappropriate to erect a monument to Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanskaya Square, as it could produce undesirable tensions in society,” Lavrenov said.
A number of commission members noted that the monument to Dzerzhinsky, which used to be located on Lubyanskaya Square in Soviet times, is good artwork, and the place where it is located now, the Muzeon park, is best.
Some commission members suggested during the discussions that the monument could be returned in the future, while others objected to this in principle.
“When those who don’t remember this man come several generations later, they might reinstall [the monument]. Vladimir Ilyich [Lenin] and Dzerzhinsky started the repression,” commission member Valery Perfilyev said at the session.
Officials from the Moscow city culture department and Moscow City Architecture Committee also noted that it would be inappropriate to reinstall the monument now.
The monument to Dzerzhinsky was transferred from federal to municipal ownership in 2008 and is officially considered a cultural heritage object. Its condition has been found to be unsatisfactory, and its restoration is planned in 2014.
Two individuals known as Zilinsky and Terekhov had earlier filed petitions on reinstalling the monument on Lubyanskaya Square. The commission is supposed to consider any incoming proposals on installing monuments.